Builder Confidence Still Fairly Solid Despite Catching Cold

Bad weather appearsrnto be taking a toll on otherwise solid builder confidence.   ThernNational Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said its Housing Market Indexrn(HMI), a measure of builder attitudes toward new home construction, was down 2rnpoints to 55 in February after falling 1 point the month before. </p

NAHB Chairman Tom Woods blamed the dip inrnpart the serial snowstorms that have hit much of the nation for the last month.rnHe said, “Overall, builder sentiment remains fairly solid, with this slightrndownturn largely attributable to the unusually high snow levels across much ofrnthe nation. </p

The HMI, sponsored in partnership withrnWells Fargo Bank, is derived from a monthly survey of NAHB’s new home builderrnmembers.  They are asked theirrnperceptions of the current single family home market and their expectations forrnthat market over the next six months as “good,” “fair,” or “poor,” and asked tornrate current traffic of prospective buyers as “high to very high,” “average” orrn”low to very low.” Scores for each component are then used to calculate arnseasonally adjusted index where any number over 50 indicates that more buildersrnview conditions as good than poor.</p

The component measuring current salesrnconditions eased down 1 point from 62, the level it had maintained over the previousrnthree months. While sales expectations over the next six months held steady atrn60.  The impact of the weather was mostrnevident in the component measuring current buyer traffic which fell 5 points torn39.</p

Regional scores are presented asrnthree-month moving averages.  Thatrnaverage was down 1 point in the Northeast to 46 and 2 points in both thernMidwest and the South to HMI scores of 54 and 57 respectively.  The West was 2 points higher at 68. </p

NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe said, “Forrnthe past eight months, confidence levels have held in the mid- to upper 50srnrange, which is consistent with a modest, ongoing recovery.  “Solid job growth, affordable home prices andrnhistorically low mortgage rates should help unleash growing pent-up demand andrnkeep the housing market moving forward in the year ahead.”

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